Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,244
Fighting
A large-scale Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv killed two people and wounded 15, including a 12-year-old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The attack caused widespread damage, including when a drone hit the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi district, where people had taken cover.
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 426 drones and 24 missiles in the overnight attack, making it one of Russia's largest aerial assaults in months.
A Russian drone attack on Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region injured 11 people, including a five-year-old boy, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram.
Ukraine's Air Force said it downed or jammed 224 Russian drones and missiles, while another 203 drones disappeared from radars.
The Russian Ministry of Defence said that Russian air defence systems downed 132 Ukrainian drones on Monday.
The governor of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said that fragments of Ukrainian drones fell on a kindergarten and a fire station in the region's port city of Berdyansk but there were no casualties.
Military aid
Norway is ready to help fund the deployment of US Patriot missile systems for Ukraine's air defences, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told reporters at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.
The Netherlands will also make a 'substantial contribution' to the delivery of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Monday, quoting the country's Minister of Defence Ruben Brekelmans.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that 'a decision by French companies to begin manufacturing drones in Ukraine' is 'highly valuable'.
Ukrainian Minister for Defence Denys Shmyhal said the country needs $6bn to close this year's defence procurement gap, in an online meeting with Western allies.
The Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting of high-level military donors to Kyiv was led by the United Kingdom's defence secretary, John Healey, and his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte were among the attendees.
Politics and diplomacy
New talks between Russia and Ukraine will take place in Turkiye on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said in his daily public address, with more details to be released on Tuesday.
'A lot of diplomatic work lies ahead,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Monday, commenting on the prospects for a breakthrough with Kyiv on ending the war.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot emphasised France's support to Ukraine in a surprise visit to Kyiv.
Ukraine's security services detained an official from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on accusations of spying for Russia.
Italy's Royal Palace of Caserta cancelled a concert by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, a vocal backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, after uproar from Ukraine and its supporters.
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Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Zelenskyy promises new bill amid growing pressure over anticorruption law
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised to introduce new legislation amid continuing protests and international criticism over a law passed earlier this week that critics say undermines Ukraine's fight against corruption. The controversial law, passed on Tuesday, places the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) under the direct authority of the country's prosecutor general – an official appointed by the president. Critics say the law strips the agencies of their independence and could allow political interference. While Zelenskyy has defended the law as a necessary response to suspected 'Russian influence' within the agencies, European Union officials and rights groups say that it contains no specific provisions to target Kremlin-linked operatives and warn it could derail any Ukrainian accession bid to the European Union. 'I have analysed all concerns,' Zelenskyy wrote on X following a meeting with top government and law enforcement officials. Writing about the proposal of the new bill, he said: 'We will prepare and submit a bill to the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] that ensures the strength of the rule-of-law system. There will be no Russian influence or interference … and all the norms for the independence of anti-corruption institutions will be in place.' Public anger and European backlash On Tuesday night, thousands of Ukrainians rallied in Kyiv and other major cities in rare wartime protests. More than 1,000 demonstrators defied martial law, which bans large public gatherings, to express their anger at the government, while on Wednesday, more protests took place in the capital. 'This is complete nonsense from the president's office,' 20-year-old student Solomiia Telishevska told the news agency Reuters, referring to the law signed by Zelenskyy on Tuesday. 'This contradicts what we are fighting for and what we are striving for, namely to [join] the European Union.' Cleaning up systemic corruption has long been a core requirement for Ukraine's EU membership and for unlocking billions in foreign aid. The law's passage risks alienating Kyiv's Western allies as the war grinds on. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has demanded 'explanations' from Zelenskyy, with a spokesperson confirming on Wednesday that she conveyed 'strong concerns about the consequences of the amendments'. Germany's Johann Wadephul, deputy leader of the Christian Democratic Union, warned on X that the restrictions were 'hampering Ukraine's path to the EU'. Anticorruption bodies targeted The storm erupted days after law enforcement raided NABU offices and arrested an employee on suspicion of spying for Russia. Another employee was accused of illegal business ties to Moscow. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) agency also carried out searches and arrests related to other alleged infractions, including a traffic incident. Zelenskyy suggested these incidents justified the law passed on Tuesday, but Ukrainian analysts have warned the changes could erode public trust in Zelenskyy's leadership during a critical phase of the war. NABU was created in 2015 after Ukraine's 2014 pro-European revolution to tackle deep-rooted government corruption. The agency has investigated multiple high-profile cases, including figures close to Zelenskyy's administration. Transparency International Ukraine denounced the raids as 'an attempt by the authorities to undermine the independence of Ukraine's post-Revolution of Dignity anti-corruption institutions'. Some Ukrainians believe the government is protecting loyal insiders at the expense of transparency. 'Those who swore to protect the laws and the constitution have instead chosen to shield their inner circle, even at the expense of Ukrainian democracy,' said veteran Oleh Symoroz, who lost both legs in 2022 fighting Russian forces. The political firestorm risks creating deeper rifts within Ukraine at a time when unity is vital in Kyiv's war against Russia. Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties, warned the law could play directly into the Kremlin's hands. 'This is a gift to Putin,' she said. Russian officials have already seized on the controversy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked there was 'a lot of corruption' when asked about the protests in Kyiv.
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
EU steps up air defences for Ukraine and sanctions for Russia
Ukraine's European allies marshalled resources this week to provide the besieged country with air defences against drones and ballistic missiles. The European Union also announced an 18th round of sanctions designed to sever all remaining Russian energy imports, and proposed a fivefold increase in the common defence budget to boost EU defence research and procurement. European leaders convinced the United States to symbolically rejoin the 52-nation Ukraine Defence Contact Group coordinating defence donations, but not as a donor. It was the first such meeting attended by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth since February, when he told EU members that pushing Russia out of Ukraine's internationally recognised territory was unrealistic. Operational developments As the ideological chasm between the EU and the US over Ukraine widened, Russia continued to pound Ukrainian defenders, making a few inroads. Russian forces seized Degtyarnoye in Ukraine's northern Kharkiv region, Popov Yar in its eastern Donetsk region, and Kamenskoye in the southern region of Zaporizhia on July 17. They captured Belaya Gora on Sunday and Novotoretskoye on Tuesday, both in Donetsk. While holding its front line, Ukraine has targeted Moscow with long-range weapons for the past two weeks. Russian air defences downed 13 drones approaching Moscow on Saturday, said its mayor, and Ukrainian drones disrupted traffic in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Sunday, said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation. Then, on Monday, Russia claimed to have shot down 74 Ukrainian drones, a third of them near Moscow. Others must have hit their targets, because a fire at Kamenolomny station in the Rostov region caused delays to train services in the Caucasus. Kovalenko also said that on June 11, Ukrainian drones attacked the Lukhovitsky Aviation Plant in the Moscow region, which produces MiG-29 and MiG-31 fighters. Ukraine's General Staff said drones also hit the Shipunov Design Bureau – a manufacturer of anti-aircraft missiles. The following day, Ukraine reportedly blew up a gas pipeline in Khanty-Mansiysk, about 3,000km (1,900 miles) from Moscow. The pipeline reportedly supplied military production facilities. Drone air defence At Monday's meeting of Ukraine's allies, known as the Ramstein format, after the German town where the meetings began, the United Kingdom and Germany pledged to jointly provide Ukraine with an unspecified number of missiles to defend its skies. 'Boris and I have agreed to jointly supply Ukraine with critically needed anti-aircraft missiles,' UK Defence Secretary John Healy said, referring to German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius. Ukraine uses the German-made IRIS-T and US-made NASAMS and SHORAD missile defence systems against drone attacks, which have intensified in recent weeks. From July 17 to 22, Ukraine shot down or electronically suppressed 833 of 968 unmanned aerial vehicles targeting its cities and critical infrastructure. The largest attack came on Monday, when Russia launched 426 drones overnight, along with five Kh-47 M2 Kinzhal ballistic missiles, four Kalibr cruise missiles, one Iskander-K cruise missile and 14 Kh-101 cruise missiles. The largest attack of the war on July 9 used 728 drones, and the head of the German Planning and Command Staff, Major-General Christian Freuding, said on Saturday that Russia plans to further increase its drone production capacity with the goal of launching 2,000 drones in one overnight strike package. Ukraine has used a variety of methods to down or disable drones, including man-portable air defence kits, heavy machineguns and electronic warfare. But its most successful methods so far have proven the German radar-assisted Gepard anti-air 35mm gun and its domestically-developed interceptor drones, said Ukrainian drone warfare expert Olena Kryzhanivska. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made such domestically produced weapons a top priority. Inaugurating a new government headed by Yulia Svyrydenko on July 17, Zelenskyy said its top priority was to increase domestic arms production: 'Currently, about 40 percent of the weapons in the hands of our warriors are made in Ukraine. In six months, it should be no less than 50 percent,' he said. The goal was 'to push the war back onto Russia's territory – back to where the war was brought from. So that they feel what they've done', Zelenskyy said. Pistorius revealed details of a separate German collaboration with the US to provide Ukraine with Patriot air defence batteries. Ballistic air defence Ukraine has no domestic solution for countering Russia's deadliest long-range weapons, its ballistic missiles. The only effective defence it possesses is the US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system. Pistorius revealed on Monday that 'during my trip to Washington last week, I agreed with Pete Hegseth that Germany would contribute to the rapid provision of five much-needed Patriot systems.' A complete Patriot system consists of a central radar and antenna array, and at least six launch vehicles carrying four interceptor missiles each. It appeared that Germany would pay for these systems. In return, the US would award it – and other countries donating their Patriots to Ukraine – priority placement in the production queue when buying replacement systems. Zelenskyy told Newsmax and the New York Post that he would separately buy Patriot systems and pay for them with Ukrainian-built drones. 'I told President Trump: 'The American people need this technology, and you should have it in your arsenal.' I believe this is a mega deal – a win-win for both sides. We're ready to share our experience with America and European partners,' Zelenskyy told Newsmax. Europe at the forefront of Ukraine aid While the US administration of Donald Trump remains willing to sell military kit to Ukraine after suspending donations, Europe remains ideologically committed to bankrolling Ukraine's defence and ending its own reliance on the US. Presenting the EU's next seven-year, 1,816-billion-euro ($2,130bn) budget on July 16, Ursula Von Der Leyen proposed a 131-billion-euro ($154bn) budget for defence and space, a fivefold increase on the 2021-27 budget. The money, which is in addition to that spent by EU national governments, would go towards buying European defence goods, investing in European defence industries, cybersecurity and dual-purpose critical infrastructure. Von Der Leyen proposed establishing a European Competitiveness Fund for defence research and innovation. She also proposed doubling the Ukraine Assistance Fund to 100 billion euros ($117bn). On July 18, the EU succeeded in agreeing on an 18th raft of sanctions against Russia. It bans the last remnants of Russian energy purchases from the EU, worth about 23 billion euros ($27bn), and lowers a price cap on oil carried to third parties on EU-insured tankers. The UK, where much of the world's tanker fleet is insured, has coordinated with the EU to follow the price cap of $47.60 per barrel, down from the price cap imposed in December 2022 of $60. 'The UK and EU are working in lockstep to combat those callously fuelling the fires of destruction in Ukraine,' said the UK Foreign Office. The new price cap will be dynamic, and is to be set 15 percent below market prices every six months. The EU forbade companies from transacting with the Russian-built Nordstream I and II pipelines, which were blown up in 2022, ensuring they would never be repaired or rescued from bankruptcy. The EU also banned any refined oil products from entering the EU, and added 105 vessels to the Russian shadow fleet banned from entering EU ports or receiving services, bringing the total to 444. The EU increased the number of Russian banks banned from transacting with its financial sector from 23 to 45, and sanctioned dozens of entities and companies believed to be helping Russia circumvent sanctions to its defence industry, 11 of them non-Russian. Diplomacy versus all-out war Amid this barrage of new measures from the EU and its slender mercantile collaboration with the US, diplomacy was not entirely given up. Ukraine proposed, and Russia accepted, a third round of direct talks in Istanbul on Thursday. Putin would attend China's 80th anniversary celebrations commemorating its defeat of Japan in World War II, the Kremlin said, and could meet with Trump if the latter accepted the invitation. Trump has spent most of his political career demonising China, however, and might resist casting it in the role of peace broker. US Air Force general Alexus Grynkewich told Bild last week that 'the EU and the US have only 18 months to prepare for a global military conflict with China and Russia. 'China and Russia are preparing for a simultaneous strike on Taiwan and Europe,' Grynkewich was quoted as saying. 'The conflict could start with a Chinese attack on Taiwan. Since Russia is currently a satellite of the PRC, Xi Jinping will undoubtedly coordinate actions with Putin. We will need every piece of equipment, all available machinery, and every munition we can get to be ready,' reported the commander-in-chief of NATO's European forces.
Al Jazeera
8 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Unbearable': Ukrainians deported by Russia, stranded at Georgia border
Warning: This story contains references to suicide In a damp, crowded basement at the southern entrance of the Dariala Gorge, the mountainous no-man's-land between Georgia and Russia, more than 90 Ukrainian deportees from Russia are being held. The deportees at the Georgian border checkpoint can only step outside when they need the toilet, and they must go in pairs under the watchful eyes of Georgian border guards. They are here because they can't cross the border directly from Russia to Ukraine due to the war, and Georgia refuses to let them in because many have criminal backgrounds, so they are stranded. Some have now been living in the basement for nearly two months. Most of these men – along with a handful of women – are former prisoners in Russia who have been deported after serving their sentences, but some have been expelled for other reasons, such as problems with their immigration documents. On Sunday night, July 20, they mounted a protest. 'We're not allowed outside!' one of the men shouted as they were surrounded by security personnel on the premises. 'We're being tortured here,' called another. 'It's damp, there's [disabled people] here without medical attention, there's nothing here at all,' he added. A video sent by the deportees to Al Jazeera shows one man very seriously harming himself during the Sunday night protest. 'He's been here more than a month,' 45-year-old Nikolai Lopata, one of the other detainees, told Al Jazeera by phone. 'He was promised twice [that] he would be taken away. He bought [travel] tickets twice, and both times no one returned the money,' Lopata said, noting that the man, who suffers from anxiety, has repeatedly been denied permission to travel through Georgia to Ukraine. An ambulance arrived after more than an hour, and paramedics bandaged his wounds, then left without him. The man, who appeared in the video to be in his late 30s or early 40s, was not hospitalised and remains at the checkpoint, volunteers at the scene who are in contact with Al Jazeera said. 'They won't let us in or out' The detainees, who have arrived from Russia or territories occupied by Russia and have been released from prison in recent months, are now stuck in limbo in this buffer zone, Lopata explained. In total, approximately 800 deportees are thought to be stuck in Russia or at Russian-Georgian border points, experts say. 'They [Georgian border officials] took our documents. They won't let us in or out of Georgia. They keep telling us 'tomorrow, tomorrow'. Some people have been here for more than a month and a half in terrible, unbearable conditions,' Lopata said. Originally from Dnipro in central Ukraine, Lopata said he had been living in Russia, where he has a Russian wife, two children and a sister, since 2005. But in 2010, he was convicted of murder. When he completed his sentence in 2024, he was sent to a deportation centre for another year. By then, the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine was raging, so getting a one-way flight to Kyiv was impossible. 'Last summer, they [the Russian authorities] promised to send me to Georgia. Then, in winter, they promised to send me to Ukraine through Belarus. Then, we were taken to the border of Georgia, which supposedly accepts us, but Georgia is not accepting,' Lopata said. Instead, when he reached the border on July 4, Lopata said, he was photographed, fingerprinted and had his documents confiscated by Georgian border officials before being taken to a cellar. 'We don't do anything. We sit in the basement,' Lopata continued, explaining that the men sleep in shifts because there are only 40 beds. The men are provided with very little and lack reliable medical assistance, instead having to rely on emergency care. 'An ambulance comes almost every day, sometimes twice a day, because there are disabled people, there are sick people,' Lopata said, adding that there is someone with epilepsy, a person with HIV, and another with tuberculosis. 'But they don't offer anything besides immediate help. Yesterday, for example, they made an injection of painkiller, then said, 'That's it, we can't help with anything else.'' Activists and volunteers try to bring essentials to the detainees each week. Food, household items and personal hygiene products are delivered by Volunteers Tbilisi, an organisation helping Ukrainian refugees in Georgia. 'There is no access to fresh air, there is a lot of heat and the cellars are closed,' organiser Maria Belkina told Al Jazeera. 'These are not conditions you can live in at all.' Route through Moldova cancelled Anna Skripka, a lawyer for the NGO, Protection of Prisoners of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera that this problem has been mounting for the past two years of the war in Ukraine: 'This humanitarian disaster started in 2023.' Skripka said some people have become so desperate they have tried to kill themselves. 'They didn't understand what was going on,' she said. 'The conditions there are terrible.' According to Skripka, there are 84 men and seven women currently being detained, and while the women are held in a separate room, their conditions are also poor. 'The women complain to me that they're not being taken to the toilet,' Skripka said. 'They asked us to buy them a bucket with a lid to go to the toilet.' Previously, deportees at this border crossing were transferred by bus to Tbilisi Airport to fly to Moldova and then on to Ukraine. That's how Ukrainian activist Andriy Kolomiyets, considered a political prisoner by the Russian human rights group Memorial, returned home earlier this month after serving 10 years on drug and attempted murder charges. Skripka explained that 43 detainees managed to leave between early June and July, landing in Moldova and then getting a bus to Ukraine. But four of them got off the bus and stayed in Moldova, prompting the landlocked Eastern European country to halt cooperation. 'They're already back in Ukraine,' Skripka said about the missing four, which Al Jazeera could not confirm, 'but Moldova said, 'Stop, we do not want to risk it.'' As a result, since mid-July, Moldova has refused passage for Ukrainian deportees from Russia. While Georgia was cooperative at first, it has also begun refusing to allow deportees through on the basis that many are ex-convicts who have served prison time in Russia, seriously limiting the options for Ukrainians trying to return. 'Most of these individuals have a serious criminal past and have been convicted numerous times for grave or particularly grave crimes,' the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. But Skripka said that it is unfair to smear them all as hardened criminals. Some were expelled from Russia for lacking proper paperwork. Others have had their Russian citizenship revoked. Their treatment, Skripka argues, goes beyond bureaucratic injustice; it raises serious legal and moral questions. 'They were beaten, pushed from another country by the barrel of a machinegun … they are victims of war crimes,' Skripka said. Further complicating things, many of the deportees lack the proper documentation. Ukraine has been issuing 'white passports' – emergency documents to allow citizens to travel home – but these only last for 30 days. Some Ukrainian politicians have spoken out. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of 'weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens through Georgia'. Russia is weaponizing the deportation of Ukrainian citizens through Georgia. We propose that Russia transport them directly to the Ukrainian border instead. Since June, Russia has significantly increased the number of deported Ukrainian nationals, mostly former convicts, to the… — Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 (@andrii_sybiha) July 19, 2025 'We are actively working with the Georgian and Moldovan sides to get the rest of our people transited to Ukraine,' he wrote. 'To avoid further complications, we publicly offer Russia to send these categories of Ukrainian citizens directly to the Ukrainian border. We will be prepared to take them on from there. There are relevant parts of the border where this can be done.' A matter of national security Once detainees have returned to Ukraine, they must undergo a thorough security check. 'They were in Russia for a long time. Everything is possible. They could have been recruited [by Russian intelligence]. This is a matter of national security for Ukraine,' Skripka explained. There are also fears that the number of deportees will soar in the coming months as there are hundreds of Ukrainians who are still waiting in Russian deportation camps. 'According to our calculations, there are about 800 people. And if they are all brought to Georgia, it will be a disaster,' Skripka warned. Meanwhile, in March, an edict issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin demands that Ukrainians living in the territories claimed by Moscow must either leave or accept Russian citizenship by September 10. This could potentially lead to mass deportations. Lopata, meanwhile, can't wait to leave, although not necessarily home. 'My house in Ukraine has been bombed. My parents have been killed, and I don't know where to go,' he said. 'I just really want to get out of here any way I can.'
